As processes and machines have become more automated, computer vision systems have gained greater importance and interest, both within industrial and consumer spaces. For example, a vegetable factory may utilize a computer vision system to monitor and control the quality of vegetables along an assembly line. Similarly, a robot or autonomous vehicle may utilize a computer vision system to assist in navigating from place-to-place.
As computer vision systems and the supporting computer technology have advanced, the ability to intelligently identify objects within the real-world has become a topic of high interest. In order to identify an object within the real-world, a computer vision system must distinguish objects within an image from each other. For instance, a computer vision system may be tasked with the problem of distinguishing a chair from the background image of the room that contains the chair. Additionally, beyond simply identifying an object within an image, it would provide significant benefits to identify the actual type of object. For example, it is desirable that a computer vision system identify that the object in the image is a chair.
In addition to various other industrial and consumer uses of computer vision systems, recently computer vision systems have been incorporated into virtual reality and augmented reality systems. Computer vision systems can be used to overlay information in a user's field-of-view within an augmented reality system. For instance, it may be desirable for an augmented reality system to automatically display information about an object that the user is focusing on. Various computer systems, however, including virtual reality and augmented reality systems, have difficulty determining the actual object that a user is focusing on. It is difficult to determine, for example, whether the user is focusing on another person, the person's head, the person's face, or the person's nose. Each of these potential focus points can dramatically impact what information the augmented reality system would normally display. Accordingly, there is an ongoing need for improved computer vision systems that are capable of identifying a particular object that a user is focusing on within a scene.
The subject matter claimed herein is not limited to embodiments that solve any disadvantages or that operate only in environments such as those described above. Rather, this background is only provided to illustrate one exemplary technology area where some embodiments described herein may be practiced.